← Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
WTF is Hogwarts doing???
00:38:52
What is Hogwarts actually for? Beyond floating candles and talking portraits lies a school with deeply entrenched ideologies—one that prepares students less for life and more for assimilation into magical bureaucracy. This episode of Critical Magic...
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:03]
A
Welcome to Critical Magic Theory where we deconstruct the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Because loving something doesn't mean we can't be critical of it. I'm Professor Julian Womble and today we need a break, y'. All. We made it through the Snape episodes. And I know that I said we were gonna go like straight into Dumbledore, but who was I kidding? Who, who was I fooling? Like, what a silly thing to say. Out loud, recorded for all to hear, always. What an absurd notion. No, no, we need a break. And so in lieu of me making up something that would suffice, I decided that I would share with you a bonus episode that I made for the deep divers and chronic overthinkers about Hogwarts as an institution. I think that before we get into Dumbledore, if you haven't done the Dumbledore essay, I mean the Dumbledore Dumbledore ess, it's because people have been writing like dissertations and I'm so grateful and they've been so good, y'. All. We're thinking about doing like a compilation. But anyways, we'll get into those details later. This is not a Dumbledore episode. This is a Hogwarts episode. And I'm excited for us because I think this bonus episode is a lot of fun in that it really asks a lot of questions, but it also transitions us into thinking about how we understand the role that Dumbledore plays in kind of curating the Hogwarts that we know and that many of us love. And so that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have this bonus episode. You're gonna listen to it. It's not as long as our normal episodes, but that's okay because I think it's chock full of things for us to talk about. I'm gonna be making references to the fact that there won't be a post episode chat. There will be a post episode chat for this episode. I say some other stuff in there that doesn't quite count for this, but that's all right because now you all will get to hear it. I also recorded this in June. So it's before we did our house discussion. It's before we did a lot of the things. So you'll also recognize that some of my references are a little bit outdated. That's okay too because now you have the foresight, now you have understanding that I didn't even has has have past. Julian didn't know anything. But you know, just like you know that we have to bop. Mm. You knew. And now you get to join in on the bonus bop. Because no matter what, the bop don't stop. So get ready. In three, two, one. Let's bop. We need to talk about Harry Potter. Sam, as always, I hope you danced. This is a bonus bop. I think you have to dance. I think it's legally required that one dances. As I said before, we've been talking a lot about the professors at Hogwarts as of late, and I thought it would be nice to spend a little time talking about what they teach and what we can take away from it. And so then I was thinking about what it is that I wanted to start with when thinking about Hogwarts. And one of the first things that came to mind was, you know, when I was a kid and I was first reading these books, and I think that my experience was probably the experience of many of us, which was this awe at a place, right? Something that was so completely different from our own experiences with school. It felt like the most magical place in the world. A castle hidden away from the eyes of ordinary people, which, you know, we love exclusivity. You know, we love that with enchanted staircases and just like magic everywhere, secret passages, floating candles, and classes about how to make things fly or change from one thing to another. There was something so deeply enchanting about the idea of leaving the world behind through platform nine and three quarters and arriving somewhere where you could learn to be the best version of yourself. But more than that, it was also somewhere where you could literally leave everything else behind. Like, for those of you who have gone to the Universal Studios, there is something about, like, getting on the train from one end and you walk out into Diagon Alley and you walk around, you do the whole thing, and then you walk back into the regular park and it feels like you've literally left the magical world. There is something so visceral about the world that they create, and I imagine that it's based on the kind of the feeling they want you to have, right? Especially, you know, for a kid who, like myself, who often felt like an outsider, who was nerdy and insecure and unsure of his own skin. The prospect of a Hogwarts was the ultimate dream. It felt like a new start, a new me. It was giving very much New Year, new me vibes. But this was like, with magic. And I think a lot of us, especially those of us who found refuge in fantasy books, felt like this. But what happens when we return to Hogwarts as adults? So much of our experience with this podcast. And the way that we've been thinking about things has been through the lens of us now as educators, as thinkers, or simply just critical readers. What do we see now that we didn't see then? Because as I've grown up, especially as someone who teaches in the classroom now, I find myself asking the much harder question, what is Hogwarts actually for? Like, what is its purpose beyond just being magical and fun? What and who is it training its students to become? When we think about our own experiences with education, so much is leading up to something. From the moment you enter in at kindergarten or first grade, you are moving towards something, whether it be, you know, leaving elementary school, going into secondary school, then going to high school, and then from there, you know, some people's path is college, some people's path is vocational, some people's path is wherever it is. But there's always something seemingly on the other side of this. And so questions become, like, how is it that we understand and, you know, we understand, like, what that path looks like for individuals at Hogwarts. If we step back and look at the structure of the place, Hogwarts begins to look a lot less whimsical and a lot more like a pipeline, right? Like, the path is very, very, very specific. And we see this kind of in the way that Molly talks about what she wants for all of her children. And it's a very specific pipeline. It's the Hogwarts to Ministry of Magic pipeline. The curriculum is not focused on community. It's not focused on civic engagement or ethics or understanding global magic systems. The exams are designed to sort students into future positions, mostly within the Ministry. There is very little education about Muggles, about magical theory or even practical life skills, right? Like when we go on the Horcrux hunt with the Golden Trio. None of them know how to cook. None of them know how to, like, do much of anything magically. Even Hermione, right? Like, even our Queen Hermione, who gets them out of every tough scrape is like, I don't know how to do this. There's a moment, in Order of the Phoenix, when Tonks comes and she's helping Harry get ready to leave Privet Drive, and she's trying to magically, like, get his clothes together to get packed into his trunk. And she highlights the reality of, like, my mom knows how to do. You know, how to fold the clothes and get them to do all these things themselves. We see Molly able to kind of whip up all these meals with magic and what's clear is that none of that is actually taught at Hogwarts. Like it seems to be something that you're either socialized, understanding or you have to learn on your own time. And that is even just like outside of the fact that so many of these people live in the non magical world and know nothing about non magical people. And so they're walking around like blithely unaware and ridiculously ignorant of the space that they share with these individuals. And so these students have no kind of practical application for so much of the things that they ultimately end up doing, right? There's no cooking or cleaning or living independently. I mean like when you think about it, they are in this school, the house elves cook their meals, they make their beds, they put the warmers in, they do all of this stuff, right? So we have enslaved laborers doing all of this work for these students and they don't learn how to do any of this stuff themselves. And you know, it's one of those things, um, it's a thing that we talk about a lot in the the US education system about like how we aren't taught how to do our taxes or how to be fiscally responsible or you know, there's so many things that we just simply don't learn, right? And that we end up learning once you get out of school. And I think that, you know, the assumption and the reason why, at least in the States that's the case is because there's an assumption that you will learn those things at home. The problem though, with that particular mentality as it pertains to Hogwarts is you can't learn it at home if you're Muggle born or Muggle raised because you can't do magic there. So like there is no space. You don't, and not only do you can't, can you not do magic, but if you don't have a magical parent there to teach you those things, then you are sol. And so the idea then of like what is Hogwarts actually teaching them to do and who does it want them to be really comes back full force because it brings us to something else, right? Like Hogwarts is the only magical school in the uk. And that is meaningful because it really means that most parents are left without options. If you are a magical parent, this is where you send your child. Unless you have resources to homeschool, which most people don't. And if you are a Muggle born or Muggle raised student, you just, you're just going. There's no orientation, no foundational education in magical society. No one sits you down and says here's how the world works. You're expected to catch up on your own. And again that's true I think even for students who are raised in magical houses like they do not understand how the governmental system works, right? And the thing is is that the governmental system keeps switching it up. Like Harry thought he was gonna get expelled one time and then the next time they're like oh it's totally fine. And then the next thing you know he's in front of the W, you know what I mean? Like it's always changing. And he is someone who's coming from a Muggle raised surrounding. And it just strikes me as so problematic the way that he comes to understand how the world works. And no one at Hogwarts is teaching them the system. Nobody is telling them what the rules are, what the laws are, and more importantly why Harry didn't even know what the trace was until they were like you can't do this because you have the trace. So when we think about what it is that he's learning, it's really fascinating because there are so many things that he simply does not know. And it's not for lack of curiosity because like Hermione doesn't know some of this stuff as well. And if she does know it's because she went in like independently found out this information. And by my estimation it is not incumbent upon students for them to understand understand how the world works, how the governmental structure works. Like that seemingly is such a problematic thing because it leads to a level of inequality of knowledge. And when we think about the lack of socialization for Muggle born students, Hogwarts doesn't see itself as needing to bridge the magical and non magical world. And so Muggle born kids come in and have to become cultural interpreters for pure blood and half blood students. Right? Because when Dean comes in and has a poster that doesn't move, he's the one who has to explain to Ron why that's the case. Because Ron has no knowledge of anything that has to do with Muggles. And that's Ron whose dad is obsessed with Muggle stuff, right? That's not even some of these other individuals who have absolutely no sense of these things they have to explain and then they have to try to assimilate and then translate because they still have to go back to the Muggle world. Meanwhile the rest of the students are not taught about any of it at all whatsoever. What role does the housing system at Hogwarts play? In their education. The most obvious vehicle within Hogwarts for teaching thoughts and socialization is the house system. On the surface, it looks like a way to build community, many communities within the larger community. But because these communities are built on traits, they end up being more silos than conduits for conversation across the houses. You are not just living with your housemates, you are competing with other houses, building loyalty to your own, and rarely encouraged to form friendships outside of it. Think about how few cross house friendships we actually see. Even in something as supposedly unifying as a Triwizard tournament, support is fractured. Cedric or Harry. It's never just Hogwarts. And because those traits are assigned early and rigidly, they shape how these students see themselves. It's like, in theory, like, we understand why people were upset that Harry got chosen. But in reality, it doubles the likelihood that there's gonna be a Hogwarts champion and no one. Very few people, I should say, I won't be too extreme in my language, very few people actually saw it that way. The moment that Harry gets his name taken out of the goblet, Hogwarts, I mean, Gryffindors are ecstatic because they're like, oh good, you'll beat. You'll beat Pretty boy Diggory. And it's like, wait a minute, this is supposed to be against other schools. Why are we doing an intra Hogwarts competition? And it all comes back to the whole thing with, you know, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor in the previous book and blah blah, blah and Quidditch and sports and, you know, whatever. But at the end of the day it's so fascinating because it's like, what are we actually teaching them if the one moment where we are meant to actually be united, they can't even really unite themselves because they're so used to being against one another based on the. Based on houses, right? I think about the Olympics, right? And it's like there are very few moments where I'm like, let's go usa. But when the Olympics is on, I don't care where you are on life's journey, I want you to win. And that's just how I am. And then the moment that that torch is taken off at the end, I'm like, and we're back to your regularly scheduled programming. And it's like, no one. I don't care if you, you know, compete for another state or I mean, like even like think about like basketball teams for the Olympics, right? Like, it's a collection of the best people to represent the country as a whole. And so it really does promote this kind of country centric as opposed to like state centric or region centric kind of ideology. And yet we don't see that at Hogwarts. We don't see that for the Triwizard Tournament. And I think it's really fascinating for us to think about why that is. Why is it that in this moment where we're supposed to be doing, you know, thinking about Hogwarts as a whole and we've increased our chances by one more person to win and yet we are pissed about it, right? Like, we're actively upset. And I think that part of this comes from the fact that the ideology, or at least one of them, the prevailing one, is we're talking about houses. Like when you are at Hogwarts, we're talking about houses. And I think that part of this is also the byproduct of the fact that Hogwarts operates in a space as if it's the only magical school, because it is the only magical school in the uk, not the only magical school ever. But I think the students are rarely led to believe that there are other schools outside of them, right? Like, Harry is actively surprised when he goes to the Quidditch World cup and he's walking around and he realizes like, oh wait, there are other magical schools. There are other people in the world who can do magic. Like, he has such an isolationist belief structure that it's like, oh, now I understand that, like there are other people out there. And I think that part of this is because the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts together basically promote the idea that like, no, no, no, no, no. It's just us. We are the people. And like, even though we meet all these other individuals, like our rules are the ones that matter the most. And we have all of these international, you know, magical cooperation rules and edicts, but we're not actually gonna teach y' all any of that. And so the ideology that then comes out is not one that is big. It's very myopic, it's very house centric. And like one of the big things that we see in fan fiction and even like in the merch that is sold is like, everyone's buying their house stuff. Like there's not a lot of like Hogwarts specific stuff. Like everyone, even us in real life, we are going and buying the things that are our houses. Specific things. And not just like Hogwarts. I think there's one shirt that says like Hogwarts alumni on it. Or something. But like on the whole, the houses dominate the way that people not only see like themselves within the castle, but outside of it. And I think that that's a very meaningful way for us to understand what this means. And when we think about what it means for who Hogwarts wants them to be, it's not necessarily like the promotion of, you know, well rounded individuals. It's we want you to be brave, we want you to be clever, we want you to be loyal or ambitious. And like that specific type of thing, it does something right. It teaches students not just who they are, but who they're supposed to be. And I think that that also is problematic in that I think it really does create a space for them to not feel that they can grow. It actively promotes the idea of like being separate from people who are in the exact same space as you. And so that when you all leave, when you all go and have to work at the Ministry of Magic, we can imagine that the siloing continues because it's how you've come to understand who you are and who the people you like are. And so that like the housing system kind of undermines the notion of magical unity by way of creating spaces for students to only go into the places that they want to be because they believe that those are the best places. It's high key, like social media, right? Like the level of curation that one creates for their algorithms on any given social media platform is literally just an echo chamber and you don't hear anything else from anyone else. And I think that Hogwarts really fosters that kind of belief. What role does Hogwarts play in the perpetuation of pure blood supremacy? I think about this a lot because I think one of the things that I'm excited for us to talk about as we go on this kind of bonus episode journey, if you will, is thinking about the ways that a lot of the prevailing ideology of the magical world is either actively taught at Hogwarts or implicitly untouched at Hogwarts. Right. I think that there's a way that the system kind of builds on itself by either just promoting certain kinds of belief structures or is simply just not talked about. And so it gets to persist as a result of just kind of being something that's happening in the background that no one is talking about. And there is so much at Hogwarts that's left unsaid, entire systems of magical oppression that are never explained or even acknowledged. The werewolf registry, the house elf enslavement, the disappearance of giants, the marginalizations of centaurs. These are not topics of study. They're either whispered stories or things that are completely and utterly misunderstood or completely erased. Like the fact that there's not a single book that talks about house elves and their enslavement at Hogwarts tells us a story. The fact that people know nothing about centaurs in their fifth year tells us a story. The fact that the only stories about giants are about how they are bloody and violent and evil, and there's no discussion about how they've been marginalized and killed off by magical like, the stories are very clear. And the ideology of it all is, this is all done for the greater good of magical people, individuals, right? When students learn about goblins, they learn about the goblin rebellions. They do not learn why the goblins rebelled in the first place. They learn about them as dangerous or threatening, not as sentient beings with their own political struggles. When Ron hears that Hagrid is half giant, this is something that gets me every single time. His immediate reaction is, oh, my God, like, that's bad. Why? Because no one ever taught him otherwise. And he is simply becoming a mouthpiece for what he's already heard because he's grown up in magical spaces. The curriculum at Hogwarts does nothing to undo their beliefs. And like, I was talking to someone on Instagram, I think, and we were talking a lot about how education serves as a really great place to undo some of the things that we've learned, you know, just growing up in certain spaces and places. Right. And that college in particular is one of these places where when you go to college and you are by yourself and you're around a lot of people who may not look like you, who certainly probably don't believe what you believe, that this does something to you. Some of us double down. Some of us, you know, incorporate the lessons that we're learning. But Hogwarts does not offer that particular opportunity because everyone's learning the same thing and they're there from so young and they leave that place and basically go straight into the workforce. So there's no place for them to kind of unlearn. Now, fanfic gives us a lot of opportunity for that to happen, but, like, canonically, we just don't see it. And this is how Hogwarts, through its very structure, reinforces the status quo, because it's not neutral. It's not simply unchanging. It's actively, actively regressive. It doesn't evolve. There's no innovation. It teaches the same things in the same ways, with the same assumptions, like. And so again, we're back to the main question. Is Hogwarts upholding pure Blood supremacy, whether directly or indirectly? And I think the answer is yes to both. And what is even more frustrating is that Dumbledore, for all his progressive ideals, does not change that he doesn't make Muggle studies mandatory for all students again, despite the fact that most of them are going to leave and go live in places with Muggles. He doesn't create new classes to teach magical bureaucracy, ethics or global magical cultures. He pours his energy into defense against the Dark Arch, which, while important, is ultimately still a class about protecting the magical world from internal threats. It's not about understanding systems. It's not about change. Like, I, again, I want to really emphasize. But I know that it matters and I know that we're in the context where, like, Voldemort is on the rise and he's doing all this stuff. And so obviously they need to know how to defend themselves. I understand that, but the problem is, is that there's no sense of understanding as to, like, how Voldemort even came to be in the first place. Like, because. And the reality is, it's like he's not even the bad one, right? Like he's. Well, he is the bad one, but he's not even the first one is what I mean to say. He isn't. You know, Grindelwald, from what we know, is one of the first people to actually bring this to bear. And we can understand why Dumbledore wouldn't want that particular history taught. Mm. Okay, I'm not saying it's a cover up, but also, I do have a tinfoil hat on right now. And beyond that, there is no real imperative for students to learn these magical skills for the sake of survival. The Golden Trio becomes proficient not because of the the curriculum, but because they are forced to teach themselves in order to survive a war. Most of their real learning happens extracurricularly. Right. I don't know if that's a word, but it sounded good and I said it very confidently. So thus it is a word through trial and danger and necessity. Right? Like, even then, what they are taught in class is not designed for real world application, certainly not for war or resistance. It is not even clear what they are being prepared for. If Dumbledore's intent was to prepare Harry for battle, it is strange that they only receive one year of competent instruction in defense against the Dark Arts. Right? Like, it feels like he's just throwing people in that job. Most of the lessons we witness are disconnected from any kind of the dangers that they face. In the end, Harry, Ron and Hermione survived, not because of Hogwarts, but in spite of it. Like, the things that they learn are things that they learned outside of the classroom. They learned it in the da. They learned it from fighting with all these other people, right? Which leaves not only just Harry, Ron and Hermione, but all of these students so dangerously unprepared. Especially because we know that the battle then comes to Hogwarts. Harry on the Horcrux hunt is unmoored. He doesn't understand the rules of the magical world. He has no framework for what he's up against, just instincts and spells and vibes. And that is not enough. And I just think that, like, when we think about what Hogwarts is actually teaching the students, it has nothing to do with, like, the world that they are currently confronting and everything to do with something else. Everything to do with something. It's either, you know, magical superiority above creatures. We never, ever, ever see students getting in trouble. Malfoy getting in trouble for using slurs against Hermione. The Chamber of Secrets is opened and they are coming after Muggle Borns. And everyone's just kind of like, yeah, that's a thing. And everyone's like, well, I'm cool. Like, I think at one point, who is it? Is it. Is it Zachariah Smith? Who's like, yeah, whatever. Like, I'm half blood. Like, it doesn't matter. I'm good. You know what I mean? Like, they allow for the prejudice to just reign supreme and no one says anything about it. And then the battle that they're fighting is actually a battle for someone who, like, at least plays the part or cos plays a Pure Blood supremacist. And they don't even understand the system itself to know what they're actively combating. They just see an individual who's doing bad things and they go after them, which I get. But at the same time it's like, do you actually know what you're fighting against? And the answer is no, they don't, because they haven't been taught. And I know that there will be some people who will say, like, well, Hogwarts can't teach them everything. Like, what are their parents for? They're never home. Like, they don't go to. They don't go home. They're home for like a month and a half, tops. Maybe two months if we include all the other holidays that exist. Two and A half months, I'll grant you, but that's it. And in that time there's no way in the world their parents are teaching them what's going on. They can't teach them all that stuff. If you're going to be in school for that long then it becomes incumbent upon the place to teach you the things that you need to know about the world that you live in. By not teaching students about Muggles or the structure of magical governance, Hogwarts helps maintain a hierarchy in which people, magical people, see themselves as superior. It reinforces the belief that the magical world is better than the non magical world. In fact, like I think about this all the time because when we get to I guess it's probably Prisoner of Azkaban, all of a sudden Hermione stops going home, right? We see her really being so intentional about staying in the magical world and there are lots of reasons as to why, right? Like if she's staying at the Burrow, she gets to practice magic because that's the way that the law works. If she is staying in the magical world, she, you know, doesn't necessarily always have to feel like she is being completely and utterly left out of whatever is happening. And so that Hogwarts in the Ministry of Magic, it fosters a sense of people who are coming from outside the magical world into it to not leave it offers this opportunity for them to kind of stay inside of it and to be, you know, it incentivizes the idea of like leaving behind your family which I think, you know, makes a very difficult situation for Hermione in terms of, you know, modifying her parents memories a little bit easier I'm sure because it's like she's doing something that we see a lot of magical people do. And I think part of the reason why she feels even remotely comfortable doing it and I don't want to like say she's being very cavalier about it but like the reality is that she's doing, she's making a decision that we know is something that she has seen magical people do over and over and over and over again. And so it makes sense as like a magical solution to a problem to just do that. And I think part of that is because she spends so much time in the magical world that she forgets like how problematic these things can be if in any other context. And I think that part of this is because Hogwarts really does kind of socialize the students to believe that asserting magical power over Muggles is not only acceptable but expected in the name of protection or secrecy or out of necessity. And we see this time and time again in the books. Right? The Ministry acts without consent. Spells are cast on Muggles to erase memory, alter perceptions, manipulate outcomes. There is no sense of consent, no civic framework. And Hogwarts does not prepare students to question any of this. If anything, it invites them to see themselves as victims and thus necessitating this kind of behavior. When Harry is brought before the winds in Gamma in Order of the Phoenix, he has no idea what laws protect or do not protect him. He believes whatever the Ministry says, the rules change constantly. One moment he is told he will be expelled if anything else goes wrong. The next he inflates Aunt Marge and faces no consequences. Later he is on trial before the full court and Fudge literally says this always gets me. Rules can be changed. And that this is the point. The system is opaque on purpose. Harry does not know what an Auror is until fourth year. He admits that he never thought about life after Hogwarts. If you are a Muggle born or Muggle raised person, you have no idea what your future looks like. And Hogwarts does little to change that. They have one singular consult in their fifth year. And even then it's just about what newts to take. Not who they want to be, not what kind of life they can build. The school isn't interested in helping students understand the world they live in or the laws that govern them. And in our own world, we know what happens when the populace is uninformed. We know how systems of power become. Or we know what they can become when the people they govern have no idea how the system works. Hogwarts creates a generation of magical people who believe in a system without truly fully understanding it and who are deeply vulnerable to the propaganda it produces. So what does like good magical education look like? Right? Like what is like an idealized version of a Hogwarts look like to me. I'll own this for me and I would love to chat about this in the chat. There won't be like a post episode chat but like we can talk about it in the chat. You see what I'm saying? You get it, I know you get. Would look like choice. It would look like civics, it would look like ethics, like understanding the Statute of Secrecy not just as a law but as like an ideology that guides the way that everyone operates. Like seeing magical creatures as beings with politics and not just like people who are there to do the bidding of other individuals. Teaching magical students to live in a world that includes and does not Fear non magical people. And like, I understand that there's a lot of beautiful things about Hogwarts. And I posted a video once, I think, a couple years ago where like the hook of it was like, I would never send my kids to Hogwarts. And a lot of people were like shook because they were like, I would never send my kids there. But I still want to go right, because there's such a beautiful nostalgia. And I think that when I think about, you know, how this operates and how we can kind of look at a place like Hogwarts and feel the feels and necessary and then ignore some of the things that are not so great I think it reveals how deeply we want to believe in safe space. We want to believe that there is a place that will be our sanctuary, where we can be special, where we will be chosen. We want to believe that what Hagrid tells Harry is true, that Hogwarts is the safest place there is. And because we want that to be true we overlook the fact that every year someone nearly dies or dies. That the professors are often in danger, that the curriculum is flawed. That prejudice is not only present but normalized. We do not see it because we don't want to. We want to go to Hogwarts. We want to be wizards. We want to belong. But if we are willing to ask better questions about what Hogwarts is and what it does and who it serves, then maybe we can start to imagine a better Hogwarts. One that is not just about spells and potions but about justice and ethics and true community. One that teaches students how to think, how to live and how to change the world they are inheriting. Because magic itself is not enough. We have to be taught and we have to teach them what to do with it. One of the biggest pitfalls of these books is that at the very end, Voldemort is vanquished yet again. And Harry says, I think I'm just gonna have Kreacher bring me up a sandwich. And I thought nothing changed. But why would it when nothing in his orbit other than the reality of Voldemort's existence was problematized in any meaningful way? So of course he's gonna call his enslaved house elf to come and bring him a sandwich after vanquishing Voldemort. Because why wouldn't he? He's not been taught to see that as a problem. And that's the problem. This has been another episode of Critical Magic Theory. I'm Professor Julian Womble and if you liked today's episode, first of all. Thank you. Please feel free to like, rate, subscribe and do all the things that one does Where Pods are Cast the Dumbledore Survey is up on Patreon. If you're not on Patreon and would like to join us, please do so@patreon.com criticalmagictheory if you liked this episode and you wanna hear more of the bonus episodes, please feel free to join. As a deep diver or a chronic overthinker, there are more. There is this episode and then there are three more episodes that get into some of the nitty gritty of Hogwarts and the happenings. There's if you want to follow me on social media where you will also find that I have posted the survey, please feel free to follow me at profw. On TikTok Prof. JW on Instagram. Please feel free to check out our website criticalmagictheory.com Send me an email at criticalmagictheorygmail.com Y'. All. We are almost to a Dumbledore episode but before we get there we have to do a post episode chat on Hogwarts and I cannot wait to hear your thoughts. Until then, be critical and stay magical my friends. Bye.